243 For Hogs

[dave48]

Is a 243 large enough for hogs, and if so what bullet do you recommend

[mcwoodduck]

Yes,  Any caliber that is good for deer is good for Pig.
Some guys here use 223 with well constructed bullets.
Personally I would go with a heavy round.  100 grain. 
Just avoid Varmint bullets as they are designed to come apart quickly and may not get deep enough into the Pig to do what is needed.
Good luck on your hunt

[jmayton]

That's the problem with the .243, too many varmint bullets.  They just give the hog a nasty, deep rash.  If you're going factory ammo, look for 85gr and heavier and make sure they are medium game bullets.  Winchester and Federal are good choices.  The Sierra 85 gr HP's I use in my wife's rifle are devastating on hogs but I've used Winchester 100gr before with excellent results.

[dave48]

I will be reloading and have been looking at The Barnes all copper bullets in 85 grains. My concern is penetration on a side shot.

[jmayton]

You mean over-penetration?  Unless you're talking about a 250#+ boar, there's not a lot to stop the bullet.  The "shield" is just extra connective tissue and might protect the heart from a handgun round, but any centerfire .22 or larger will get through it with no problem.  I've had .223's exit on shoulder shots.  My 30-06 nearly split a 100 pounder in half.  I think the Barnes would be a good choice and if I had the money I'd probably run those myself. 

BTW, I like neck shots better than heart/lung.  They run a good ways with a hole in their lungs and their heart shredded.  Neck shots tend to drop them a bit quicker.  But, unless you need the meat, put a bullet in them however you can.

[mcwoodduck]

The pig in my picture was shot with factory loaded Barnes.
150 grain out of a 308Win.
Hit him in the chest.
and flop, it got back up but was dead.  The guide said to shoot again. and bang DRT.
About a 60 to 75 Yard shot.
both rounds went in and out.
If you are worried.  Stick another one in it.

[Mohawk]

Seen many hogs killed in Texas with a .243 and standard 100gr soft-points. Just hit them behind the shoulder. It may run 50 yds but the .243 does fine. 

[JeffG]

Shot placement and bullet construction are everything, a lot of hunters will tell you that.

The first hog was shot end to end with a 170 gr 30/30 bullet at almost 100 yards.  I watched him do it.  The second is my hog, shot with a 223 at about 30 yds with 60 gr Nosler.  I hit him in the neck right behind the jaw. Both hogs were in the 200lb range, and both were DRT.

[Ak.Hiker]

Just do not use a varmint bullet. The 100 grain Nosler Partition would be a good choice as is the 85 grain Triple Shock X bullet. Not sure if you even need to spend the extra money on premium bullets. The Remington 100 grain Core-Lokt and Winchester 100 grain Power Point are good standard game bullets that would work. Hornady has both a round nose and pointed 100 grain JSP that also look good. For up close work the round nosed Hornady 100 grain would make a fine hog load.

[S_J_KENNELS]

The Remington 100 grain Core-Lokt and Winchester 100 grain Power Point are good standard game bullets that would work. Hornady has both a round nose and pointed 100 grain JSP that also look good. For up close work the round nosed Hornady 100 grain would make a fine hog load.

I agree with this 100%. All we use on hogs year round are Core Lokts. 243 is the lightest I would recommend when I was guiding hog hunts.

[STUMPJMPR]

.243 will shoot clean through.  Hogs aren't as tough to kill as everyone thinks.  I've killed several with a 30-30 all shots passed completely though.  I killed one with a .22 mag the bullet was found in the hide on the far side.  I even killed 2 smaller ones with a 22.

[Wynn]

Hogs are not that hard to kill. Any good soft point will work. I killed 4 Saturday evening with 139 Gr Privi Partizan from my 6.5 x 55. I go for head or neck shots and they drop in their tracks every time. They are ripping up a 800 acre piece of cattle land I work on and we go after them at least once a week.

[Westbound]

I've got an uncle that uses a 6mm Remington with good luck.
I'm not sure what bullet he uses, but I know he shoots factory ammo.  My guess would be Federal Premium.

[Dee]

Just about everyone here is givin ya good advice. The hog in my avatar was nailed with a 52 grain match hollow point our of an M4 to the neck. I am a rather large human being so he doesn't look the 300+ lbs he was. He was drt. The neck is the down right now shot on hogs, but the ribs behind the front leg or no bigger than a white tail. Hogs just ain't that tuff. Not even the bigguns.

[luke6417]

I have had great success with cheap yellow box remington cor lokts.  100grn.  However, i have killed more with a .22 mag than anything else.  Head shots work wonders.

[Land_Owner]

The "humorous" part of this is we lost the hog after we gave it a BAD headache!

I took a fellow on a hog hunt, put him on stand at O'dark-30, told him from where the hogs would come, about what time they would come, told him how they would get on the corn from the feeder, instructed him where to shoot (the "X" between opposite ears and eyes) and heard him whack one about an hour into the hunt.  I called him on the radio 15 minutes after, told him to get down and pull the hog over to his stand and get back up there to await the next one - at a distance of 25 yards MAX.  When I went to get him in two hours, he said he had heard some rustling beneath his stand and could no longer find his hog.  "You shot him right?"  "Yeah."  "About 25 yards, right?"  "Yeah."  "In the head like we talked, right?"  "Yeah."  "With what?"  "22 short."  "OMG!"  Now that's a headache!  That hog woke up and WALKED AWAY.

Your 243, much hotter than the 22 short even in a Varmint weight bullet (and I sure don't advocate that either), will drop them if you shoot them in the right place.  But some hogs are going to get up and take off UNLESS you heed the advice of your fellow hog hunters here to use ENOUGH BULLET to get the job done!  Oh yeah, some of them are STILL  going to get up and run away...

My 72 y.o. hunting partner ALWAYS uses his 243, out to 260 yards, and his greater than Varmint weight boolets Get 'er Done!

[dougk]

Interesting discussion.

I am using a 12 ga/30-06 for night hunting and am moving to a Norma 200gr Oryx from a 180 gr Oryx.

For stalking at night I am going with bigger is better.... 

[jmayton]

dougk, that sounds like a good setup for night hunting.  If there are several of us and we are out at night, at least one person has a 12ga with 00buck in it and someone else will have a semi-auto.  I tend now to small caliber semis.  My 30-06 even with 150's just destroys too much meat.  If my goal is just to kill and leave, then I don't really care. 

[rickt300]

Very little of my hog hunting takes place in daylight. I often shoot holding a spotlight in my left hand with the forearm resting on my thumb. So rifles with a lot of recoil can be an issue. My favorite hog rifle at present is a 7x57 pushing 140 gr. partitions at 2700 fps. How much penetration one needs depends on the hogs size and the "connective tissue" appears to me to be built up scar tissue which can be both thick and tough on the bigger hogs. I am presently experimenting with a rifled 20 gauge and Buckhammer slugs in a scoped Handi gun. Sure a 243 can do the job but I don't think it is the best suited rifle for it.

[dougk]

dougk, that sounds like a good setup for night hunting.  If there are several of us and we are out at night, at least one person has a 12ga with 00buck in it and someone else will have a semi-auto.  I tend now to small caliber semis.  My 30-06 even with 150's just destroys too much meat.  If my goal is just to kill and leave, then I don't really care. 

For night hunting the 12/30-06 is great.  I need to get a picture of the setup with the Nightforce light mounted on it. 

Also I use 3 inch 00 buck as it has 14 pellets vs 9 pellets with the 2 3/4 00 buck.

[jmayton]

When considering hog calibers, one must consider what size hog is to be shot at the most.  I think a lot of times we put together a rig for the big monsters rather than the 40-90 pounders we encounter the most.  I've killed somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 hogs over the past 3 years.  Of those I think maybe a dozen were over 200lbs.  And of those I would say only one was over 300 and one other was the trophy boar that everyone wants (3" tusks. . .the one in my avatar).  In those few instances, I felt a little more gun than my M4 would have given me a little more comfort, but not any more effectiveness.  Again, pretty much anything .222 or larger will do the job.  The key is to use a rifle/shotgun that you can shoot quickly and accurately because they don't usually give you a lot of time.  So far I've killed hogs with my Savage 110 (30-06), Mosin Nagant (7.62x54), Norinco Ak (7.62x39), Handi's (.243 and .223), Colt M4 (.223), Springfield GI 1911 (.45ACP), Glock 22 (.40 S&W), S&W 36 (.38 spl).  I like the Handi's and the M4 because they seem a bit faster on target than anything else with the Savage close behind.  But in the end, all the pigs are still dead.  The biggest ones have fallen to the M4, the .223 Handi, and the AK.